quotes by Bertrand Russell

"There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it."
— Bertrand Russell

"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric."
— Bertrand Russell

"Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness."
— Bertrand Russell

"To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already 3-parts dead."
— Bertrand Russell

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser men so full of doubts."
— Bertrand Russell

"War doesn’t decide who is right, war decides who is left."
— Bertrand Russell

"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."
— Bertrand Russell

"Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education."
— Bertrand Russell

"Now and then, hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted."
— Bertrand Russell

"Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so."
— Bertrand Russell

"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge."
— Bertrand Russell

"The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it. "
— Bertrand Russell

"To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can still do for those who study it."
— Bertrand Russell (A History of Western Philosophy)

"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom."
— Bertrand Russell

"Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own. "
— Bertrand Russell (What I Believe)

"One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways."
— Bertrand Russell

"Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise."
— Bertrand Russell

"Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind."
— Bertrand Russell

"We know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power."
— Bertrand Russell

"I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting. Many a man has borne himself proudly on the scaffold; surely the same pride should teach us to think truly about man's place in the world. Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cosy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigour, and the great spaces have a splendour of their own."
— Bertrand Russell

"Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones."
— Bertrand Russell (Unpopular Essays)

"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it makes a better soup."
— Bertrand Russell

"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong. "
— Bertrand Russell

"The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution."
— Bertrand Russell

"This was what Bertrand Russell called his 'Ten Commandments' as a teacher.

1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2. Do not think it worthwhile to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4. When you meet opposition, even if it should come from your husband, wife or children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority- for victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are contrary authorities to be found.
6. Do not use power to suppress opinion you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence, as you should, the former implies a deeper argument than the latter.
9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness."
— Bertrand Russell

"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important."
— Bertrand Russell

"So far as I can remember there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence."
— Bertrand Russell

"The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good."
— Bertrand Russell

"I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine. "
— Bertrand Russell

"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man."
— Bertrand Russell

"If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time. "
— Bertrand Russell

"It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this."
— Bertrand Russell

"The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way."
— Bertrand Russell

"Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality."
— Bertrand Russell

"If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years."
— Bertrand Russell

"The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."
— Bertrand Russell

"A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not to be endured with patient resignation."
— Bertrand Russell

"Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attibutable to science, which achieved its most spectacular triumphs in the seventeenth century."
— Bertrand Russell (A History of Western Philosophy)

"No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues."
— Bertrand Russell

"The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge"
— Bertrand Russell (Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits)

"It's easy to fall in love. The hard part is finding someone to catch you."
— Bertrand Russell

"And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence"
— Bertrand Russell

"Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it?"
— Bertrand Russell (The Problems of Philosophy)

""La Ciencia en ningún momento está totalmente en lo cierto, pero rara vez está completamente equivocada y tiene en general mayores posibilidades de estar en lo cierto que las teorías no científicas."
"
— Bertrand Russell

"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted."
— Bertrand Russell

"Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don't know"
— Bertrand Russell

"To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness."
— Bertrand Russell

"Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact."
— Bertrand Russell

"The secret of happiness is this: let your interest be as wide as possible and let your reactions to the things and persons who interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile. "
— Bertrand Russell

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
— Bertrand Russell